Commentary - Ezekiel 41:3-4

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but momentous passage, the prophet Ezekiel is led by his angelic guide from the nave, or the Holy Place, into the very heart of the visionary temple: the Most Holy Place. The detailed measurements continue, emphasizing that this is not a slapdash vision but a divine blueprint, ordered and precise. The entrance is measured, and then the inner sanctum itself is measured, revealing a perfect cube, twenty cubits on a side. This geometrical perfection immediately connects it to the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple. The climax comes with the divine declaration, “This is the Holy of Holies.”

The theological weight here is immense. This entire visionary temple, as the New Testament helps us understand, is a prophecy of the Christian church. And if the temple is the church, then the Holy of Holies is the centermost reality of the church, which is God’s dwelling with His people in Christ. This passage is not about a future stone-and-mortar building in Jerusalem; it is a revelation of the nature of the New Covenant community. God is meticulously designing His new dwelling place, which is not made with hands. The measurements are not for future construction workers, but for our theological edification, teaching us about the symmetry, order, and perfect holiness of the body of Christ, the true temple where God’s glory resides.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

These verses are part of a much larger vision that begins in chapter 40. After prophesying judgment and the departure of God’s glory from the corrupt Solomonic temple (Ezekiel 8-11), Ezekiel is given a stunningly detailed vision of a new temple. This vision occupies the final section of his book (chapters 40-48) and describes the restoration of God’s people, not just to the land, but to a renewed and glorious worship. The prophet is led on a guided tour of this new temple complex by a "man whose appearance was like bronze." Every detail is measured with a reed and a line, from the outer courts to the inner chambers. Chapter 41 brings the tour to the temple building itself, moving from the porch into the nave (the Holy Place), and finally, in our text, through the doorway into the Holy of Holies. This progression is crucial; it is a journey into the very heart of God’s presence. The detailed architecture is a symbolic language describing the glory and order of the age to come.

Key Issues

The Blueprint of Our Salvation

When we moderns read a passage full of architectural measurements, our eyes tend to glaze over. We want to get to the "point." But for the biblical writers, the measurements often are the point. God is a God of order, not chaos. He is a God of geometry and beautiful proportion. The tabernacle was built to a precise pattern. Solomon’s temple was built to a precise pattern. And this visionary temple is laid out with meticulous care. Why? Because the building is a picture of a spiritual reality, and that reality is not vague or nebulous. It is the ordered and beautiful reality of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

The New Testament is our key to unlocking this imagery. The New Jerusalem described in Revelation is a perfect cube (Rev. 21:16), just like the Holy of Holies. And what is the New Jerusalem? It is the bride, the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 21:9-10), it is the Church. Therefore, Ezekiel’s temple is the Church. This is not a blueprint for a third temple to be built before some future millennium. This is a glorious Old Testament preview of the body of Christ, the living temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). The measurements are theological poetry, describing the perfection and grandeur of what God is building in us through the gospel.

Verse by Verse Commentary

3 Then he went inside and measured each side pillar of the doorway, two cubits, and the doorway, six cubits high; and the width of the doorway, seven cubits.

The angelic guide now passes through the doorway that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. In the old temple, this would have been the location of the great veil. The guide is measuring the very point of entry into the deepest level of sacred space. The pillars on each side are two cubits thick, a number often associated in Scripture with witness and testimony. It takes two witnesses to establish a matter. This entrance testifies to something profound. The doorway itself is six cubits high. Six is the number of man, created on the sixth day. It is through man, the God-man Jesus Christ, that we have access to the Father. He is the door (John 10:9). The width is seven cubits. Seven is the number of perfection, of divine completion and covenant faithfulness. So we have here a doorway that testifies (two) that man (six) has access to God’s perfect covenant presence (seven). It is a doorway rich with gospel meaning.

4 He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, before the nave; and he said to me, “This is the Holy of Holies.”

Once inside, the interior space is measured. It is a perfect square on the floor: twenty cubits by twenty cubits. While the height is not given in this verse, we know from Solomon’s temple, of which this is a greater reflection, that the Holy of Holies was a perfect cube (1 Kings 6:20), twenty cubits in every direction. This perfect symmetry speaks of a complete and balanced perfection. This is the heart of God’s ordered cosmos, the place of ultimate stability and peace. The number twenty can be seen as two times ten, perhaps representing the testimony of the law (the Ten Commandments) doubled, or a completed period of waiting. This is the place where God’s perfect law and His perfect presence meet.

After the measurement comes the declaration, stark and majestic: “This is the Holy of Holies.” There is no ambiguity. Ezekiel is standing in the symbolic center of the universe, the place where heaven and earth meet. But this is not the old Holy of Holies, which was entered only once a year by one man. This is a new reality. In Christ, the veil was torn, and all of God’s people have been brought into this most holy place. The church, united to Christ, is now the dwelling place of God. We are the Holy of Holies.

Application

The first and most glorious application is to recognize who we are in Christ. We are not loitering in the outer courts. Through the blood of Jesus, we have been brought into the Holy of Holies, into the very throne room of God (Heb. 10:19-22). This is not a future hope only, but a present spiritual reality. When we gather for worship, we are assembling on the heavenly Mount Zion. This should fill us with a profound sense of reverence, but also an unshakable confidence. We belong here. The door has been opened for us.

Secondly, we should be shaped by the character of this place. It is a place of divine order, symmetry, and perfection. Our lives, both individually and corporately as the church, are to reflect this. The gospel is not a call to chaotic subjectivism; it is a call to be built up as living stones into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). Our doctrine should be square, our worship should be ordered, and our lives should be brought into conformity with the perfect character of the God who dwells in our midst. We are the temple, and we must not defile it. We are the Holy of Holies, and we are called to live holy lives, not as a means of entering, but as a result of having been brought in.